Immune System: Autoimmune Diseases

To survive in the hostile world of bacteria and viruses, our body contains in the blood an entire army of special protective cells - lymphocytes. The number of fighters in this army is calculated in astronomical figures: a person has about a trillion lymphocytes, their number is constantly growing. They act in concert, as soldiers should, but among them there are always those who misunderstood the order and destroy their own cells. A healthy body is able to protect itself from traitor lymphocytes, but in the presence of congenital genetic defects or if the body is weakened, diseases called autoimmune diseases occur.

Twenty years ago, this diagnosis was almost never made. Now that we have learned to recognize autoimmune diseases, it turns out that about 5 percent of the world's population suffers from them, two-thirds of them are women. Even atherosclerosis is now considered an autoimmune disease.

More than 80 types of autoimmune diseases are known. Most of them are based on a defective gene inherited. A defective gene can lie dormant in the human body for years, and then suddenly - as a result of an infection - wake up. According to doctors, autoimmune diseases can be caused by any infection. Most of them begin in childhood and adolescence with inflammation, which is often not even noticed. Then the incubation period drags on, during which the immune system actively fights viruses and their derivatives - toxins, producing immune cells, antibodies, and inflammatory mediators. However, there is a certain limit, after crossing which the body switches to its own tissues.

Insulin-dependent diabetes (type I diabetes)

In those suffering from this serious illness, lymphocytes mistakenly attack the cells of their own pancreas (it produces the insulin the body needs). The process intensifies if the body is weakened by infection.

Multiple sclerosis

In this disease, lymphocytes, having forgotten about their purpose, attack the body’s own protein - myelin, from which the sheaths of nerve fibers are built. The disease spreads along the fibers, as if along a cord, affecting the brain, optic nerves and spinal cord. The destruction of the myelin sheath leads to disruptions in the transmission of nerve impulses. Patients begin to experience tingling and numbness in their arms and legs, and ringing in the ears. The outcome of the disease is deplorable - patients with multiple sclerosis are threatened with complete paralysis.

Vitiligo

The disease is provoked by direct sunlight, which destroys the cells that produce the skin pigment melanin. By destroying the remains of these cells, lymphocytes begin to hunt for normal ones. As a result, unsightly white spots form on the skin.

Crohn's disease

Its symptoms are abdominal pain, diarrhea and chronic inflammation of the small intestine. In this case, lymphocytes attack the cells of the intestinal lining, mistaking them for foreign ones. After such an attack, the surface of the intestinal walls becomes like cobblestones. The number of such patients is growing all the time. Thus, over the past 10 years, their number has doubled in Norway, and tripled in the USA. The main contingent is people from 20 to 30 years old.

Sjögren's disease

Manifested by damage to the lacrimal glands, conjunctivitis. The causes of disorders in the immune system have not yet been established. The disease occurs much more often in women than in men. They complain of burning, sand in their eyes. Later, photophobia appears and visual acuity decreases. Sjögren's disease has a second obligatory and permanent symptom - damage to the salivary glands, which causes dry lips, stomatitis, and caries.

Why do women experience autoimmune diseases more often than men? Their hormonal system, or more precisely, the estrogens it produces, is to blame for this. They enhance any inflammatory response, which naturally results in a more active response.

Diagnosis of autoimmune diseases is very difficult